


Hands

by Moonlovingvampire



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Genetic Disorders & Abnormalities, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, skin disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 18:19:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16247201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlovingvampire/pseuds/Moonlovingvampire
Summary: Keith hadn't planned to get stuck in space.





	Hands

Going to bed the first night in the castle, Keith felt both devastated and elated at the same time. Elated because he had a freshly opened tube of the hand cream, devastated because he only had  _ one _ opened tube.

It wasn’t  _ hand _ cream specifically, it was just easier to call it that.

* * *

He knew two things.

He knew they wouldn’t be coming back to earth for a while, so he’d have to ration.

He also knew that he  _ needed _ it.

* * *

He tried so hard not to use it.

He wore his gloves as much as he could, to make it… to pretend it was gone. He didn’t have to feel it, he didn’t have to see it, he didn’t want to rip off all of the skin off his palms. Not as much at least.

But wearing gloves makes his hands sweat, when they become warm and the heat has nowhere to go, and he  _ knows _ that makes it worse, but what choice does he have?

He wears his shoes for the same effect.

* * *

Once a week, movement, whatever it’s called up in space, he uses the cream. Only on his hands, and only as sparingly as he dares. He does his best to make a tube that’s meant to last a week last for much longer than that.

* * *

He doesn’t remove his shoes if he can help it. He knows it makes it worse, is reminded every time he removes them to find his skin white from living in moisture, but what choice does he have? Not wear them and see how long it would take until he got tempted by extreme measures like seeing just how sharp his knife was and testing the limits of the altean pods?

Would it ever come to that?

He didn’t think so, but he knew he would be tempted.

* * *

Training was a great way to get his mind off things, but it only worked until it was over.

He had to shower, there was no way around it. But showering meant water, and water was bad.

He didn’t know what was worse, putting on his clothes right away and trapping his hands and feet in the moisture instantly, or waiting for them to dry, when it felt like they could  _ never _ get dry, and then feel the desert dry skin that he couldn’t do anything about, not with how little cream he had.

* * *

Shiro had a robot arm. Which meant he had a robot  _ hand _ as well.

Keith is jealous. Robot limbs didn't have skin and Shiro's hand was basically as good as the real thing.

Why couldn't he have robot limbs? Okay, he didn't know how to get a prosthetic as good as Shiro's considering he'd gotten his when he was captured by the galra and Keith didn't really have the option to stroll up to a... prosthetic maker? Saying he didn't want his hands or feet and could he please get robot ones instead.

Did he even _ really _ need his hands and feet?

 

Ugh, yes.

* * *

He was dying.

_ Shut up don't be so dramatic, you're fine. _

He could feel how he became less and less  _ him _ every day. 

_ You're exaggerating, it's not that bad. _

It was...

_ Don't say it, _ please,  _ don't say it. _

Spreading.

* * *

One day, he would wake up and there would be no more trace of him, no way to imagine how it was before, how it looked before.

Before he went into space, when he was good, when it was manageable, when he was a kid, when he didn't have it, when he looked  _ normal. _

* * *

He would always have it, it was in his genes.

_ Shut up, it's just a symptom. You can get rid of symptoms. _

* * *

He'd gotten an idea.

The castle was high tech and stuff, right?

The med bay was amazing, and although there was no way the pods could deal with everything, they  _ must _ have meds, which meant that there was probably some machine in the castle that could  _ make _ meds.

_ Please let there be a machine that can synthesize medicine. _

* * *

He didn't even know if the cream actually helped with how little he was using, but he couldn't imagine that it hurt. Not that he could use anymore before he could ask Coran about a synthesiser. He would need something to base it off and Keith had no idea how much would be needed, not that he had much left.

* * *

He was at his limit. He couldn't take anymore.

Touching things made him want to rip off his hands and feet and it's really hard to not touch anything at all.

He couldn't do this any longer without knowing if he was doomed forever or if his small spark of hope was true.

He had to talk to Coran.

* * *

When he finally figured out what to say to Coran, and finally made him listen, he asked about the potential machine.

It took a second to decipher the answer but it was a yes. There was a machine that could make more cream for him. Coran could have a jar ready for him by morning.

He was saved.

* * *

Hands and feet, two to three times a day. In the morning, before bed, and after showering. 

It was nice to be back to his proper routine even if he sometimes forgot or just didn't bother. Sometimes he was  _ tired _ and didn't want to bother applying it to both his hands and feet before bed. Sometimes he just fell asleep. But he wasn't too bothered by that now that he could apply it every day. He could definitely feel a difference. 

It also helped that he had found a foot file that he could use to scrape off the affected skin, leaving his hands and feet  _ soft _ and not terrible so that he wanted to chop them off as soon as they touched anything. And he'd managed to ask Lance if he had some normal moisturising hand cream that he could use during the day when his hands felt dry.

* * *

He still wanted to just have  _ normal skin _ , or no skin at all, but he was managing now. At least better than before. 

 

Yeah. 

 

He finally felt normal.

**Author's Note:**

> (Just like me) Keith has Keratodermia palmo plantaris (KPP for short) a genetic skin disorder that makes you not lose the dead skin on your palms and soles as well as make the skin prone to foot fungi infections on both your palms and soles as well as some other symtoms like getting dry skin as the dead skin isn't great at keeping moisture which makes it dry out easily. The skin also absorbs water if it's in water for a long time which makes it white and puffy (and more yummy for fungi! It loves moisture).  
> The fungi is the main problem as it is basically behind all of the problems of rough, dry skin so the cream Keith keeps referring to is actually for foot fungi.  
> I'm probably going to write more fics where Keith has KPP as I've had the idea for years.  
> If you want to know more about KPP, this fic, other fics, or just talk, you can write a comment below, find me on my tumblr, [moonlovingvampire](http://moonlovingvampire.tumblr.com/) or on my KPP specific side blog, [just-kpp-things](https://just-kpp-things.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
